5. BRAND VARIATION
Often, small businesses believe their brand ends with the logo. This becomes clear in materials that have a range in approach, color, layout and voice with only the logo in common. A style guide is a deliberate agreement in your unique selling point, your intended audience and approach.

4. TRIFOLDS
Trifold’s are old trusty tools but often they are less than effective. They suffer from a number of issues including too much text, usability (which way does it open?), no call to action and can actually appear to be a cheap alternative to an affective impression.

3. SCRIPT FONTS
The next time you find that stylized font on dafont.com and just can’t resist using it consider a few very specific parameters for doing so. Make sure it’s the only styled font in your project (it shouldn’t have to compete), make sure it’s readable and make sure you have license to use it commercially.

2. TEXT OVER IMAGES
There are times you want to create a dramatic effect with a compelling image in the background. The best way to maximize this effect is to limit the text you use over the image, increase the size of the text and make sure contrast is at least 80%.

1. FINE ART LOGOS
Although usually beautiful renderings, fine art is logos rarely translate well. As you look at mainstream products and services you will see the careful balance in adopting marks that are easily identifiable, convey one idea and are readable at varying sizes.

Read what Ripefruit has to say about how to maximize your design efforts.